Linocut in Progress: Oh, look. It starts with blue. Again.

 If I had a nickel for every time I started a new linocut with a light blue, I'd have.... a lot of nickels. So let's drop another one in the jar and see what's up this time, shall we?

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 1 ink roll-up

That's a weird collection of scribbly carved lines, isn't it? I might be embarking on another one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" images, but here we go. 

Step 1 printed

Not much to see here, although readers/followers who know me well will probably have a good guess about the subject matter already.

But let's throw a wrench in that right away. I need to add some bits of warmer color in here, and I want to do it before too much more blue goes down. (There will be a LOT of blue in this image.) I can't possibly hope to contain it in the miniscule areas I have in mind, but I can at least keep this warm color from running completely amok by using a mask.

Creating some masks: trace and trace again

It's been a while since I've explained masking, so let's walk through it now. It's a multi-step process that begins with a sheet of clear acetate. I place the acetate over my lino block and trace the shapes in which I want to contain this warm color. I have been known to cut extremely fussy masks in the past, but I don't have the patience for that at the moment.

After I make the acetate pattern, I trace those shapes onto plain newsprint. 

Cutting the masks

By keeping the shapes fairly simple I am able to cut through several sheets of newsprint at a time without things sliding around too much. This saves time and patience. Which I think I have already mentioned I am a bit lacking in at the moment.

Masks cut, I can turn my attention to rolling up some ink again. Here's a warm light rust color. 

Step 2 rollup

You can see that I didn't roll the color across the entire block. No need, since the color is only going to print through the masked areas, anyway.

Here's the mask in place on the inked block:

Mask in place, ready to print

Important caveat here! You will notice that my newsprint sheet is not as large as the entire print block. This is good from a saving paper point of view, HOWEVER. It only works to use a short sheet when the already-printed ink color(s) are dry. If the previously-printed ink is at all damp, the newsprint will strip some of it off the prints. This can be a good thing in some instances, and a bad thing in others. In this case, if my already-printed blue was still damp I would end up with a harsh line 2/3 of the way down the print, with lighter blue on top and darker on the bottom. Not what I want! But the blue was quite dry already, so no problem.

Step 2 printed

Weird-looking, huh? I am either very clever or I've already made a mess. Only time (and a few more ink layers) will tell.